AppYaMpilo

The Public Health care system in our country is under enormous pressure, it's a known fact. We are still, to this date, struggling with issues around stigmatization, no regard for privacy and people do not know their rights. Even if they did, they would not be in any position to make any claims if their rights have been violated. Having said that, I also feel that this is but a secondary issue. The main issue is that the numbers of infections and HIV/AIDS related deaths are not taking a significant dive, if any at all. Partly because patients, get discouraged by going to the health centers and be recognized and shamed. Some even resort to suicide. Some fall into the default lists, completely abandon monitoring their statuses and end up being victimized by opportunistic diseases. 

Expectant mothers who are living with HIV are still on the rise, babies are born HIV positive in 2022!! That's is still shocking.

The mobile app therefore, will address the one on one interaction with a practitioner and less human intervention. This, we believe will help with monitoring, on both the part of the Health Care System and the individuals themselves. To live healthy lives and be active citizens in the country's economy.

Our long term goal is to serve all the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and then the whole of Africa.

By developing a mobile application that will be used as a means of communication between the patient and the Health Care Practitioner in va-rious areas. The target is the Public Health Care system, more especially the rural, townships, informal settlements but we will not the affluent citizens, living with HIV.

The mobile application, should have all data concerning the patient, such, as, previous blood counts, current prescriptions, other underlying conditions. It should eventually (long term) be a tool for a patient to take full responsibility of their own health/ progress in retaining the viral load at less than detectable levels. As well for health practitioners to be able to detect critical cases that require urgent care and intervention. Issuing of prescriptions (Anti Retroviral Treatment and other). One will be able to order their medicine from the APP and it gets delivered to their doorstep without the deliverer knowing the contents of the consignment.

On part of expectant mothers living with HIV, these individuals are able to better prepare for the delivery of an HIV negative baby, by constantly monitoring the growth of the fetus, by having easy and efficient consultations with the health care practitioner at their local centers.

The Technologies we are looking to deploy:

App Development

Data Storage (Cloud Services)

Cyber Security

Connectivity 

We also take into consideration the country's legislation with regards to health care and the rights of patients.

The Solution serves every family that is affected by this disease, those who are living with HIV and those who have had to accept the stigmas that come with having a member or members of the family who are infected.

It serves also the health care system by relieving the pressure of long queues, protection of information as it will reduce significantly the element of human interaction in this area (HIV/AIDS).

It will also serve the citizenry at large by relieving the burden oh babies born with HIV/AIDS, whose quality of lives are compromised. We are taking also into deep consideration those who are already infected and affected, as they also will benefit in this program.

Firstly, the subject hits home in many ways. I was born in the rural parts of South Africa, even though I have later moved to the City for greener pastures, my visits back home are accompanied by the reality that says "no one is coming for those people". In areas were there is one to no clinic at all, to serve thousands of homes. 

We were woken up by the outbreak of COVID-19 and the shut downs that followed. We came to learn that public clinics were shut down only to serve serious cases of COVID-19. HIV/AIDS Patients felt like the unwanted child.

We are working hand in hand with a group of youngsters who have just developed an educational APP to serve the whole country with digital education from the palm of their hands, we believe we have a winning team.

While my business partner and I are from different backgrounds, him being a Computer Scientist and MBA holder, I have impeccable skills in business administration and development.

We are hoping for financial assistance, to help us develop a prototype. This will help us to do a trial at a few centers then we are able to approach the National Department of Health with a ready prototype, that demonstrate success.

Many tele medicine programs are just that, tele medicine. This one brings health into the home where it should begin anyway.

It also has an effect of further engaging users to advancement in basic digital skills knowledge. We at Teka Tako Ngwane Institute are passionate about bridging the digital divide, in rural South Africa. Bearing in mind that we are also a poverty stricken country, where also the education system is just as under pressure. Bringing this technology to the public should make a huge difference in the life of an ordinary South African. We also envisage a situation of bringing connectivity to those who need it the most. If this program can connect homes to also enable school learners to have access tot he internet, then we know that we are on the right track to bridging the digital divide in South Africa, and sooner to the whole of Africa.

The short term goal is to reduce stigma related issues, such as defaulting patients, who end up dying from opportunistic infections. To reduce - eliminate babies born with HIV/AIDS. To encourage to take full responsibility of their health. Reduce the human interaction as we believe it contributes to the cause of many of the problems.

Medium term goal is to collect data and analyze for better usage for other solutions if/ when there's any epidemic/ pandemic/ disease outbreak.

Long term goal is to deploy fully Artificial Intelligence in this area. With the envisaged results of the short and medium term goals, we believe that we will only be dealing, in 15 years time, with the cases that have been current, with minimal to no new cases of new infections.

The program is still at concept stage.

Even though we have our targets that are in line with the UNAIDS Country Fact Sheets that are published on their website, we also plan to have our own data collected and analyzed for more accurate reporting and preserving for future use.

https://www.unaids.org/en/regi...

Our Theory of Change begins with:

Identifying the features of the mobile application. Engaging a clinic, collecting data, develop the mobile app and running a trial. We will then take the results and while continuing to monitor the accessibility and user friendliness of the mobile app, collect that data and present to the National Department of Health to get a go ahead in rolling out to one province at a time.

For patients who have absolutely no digital skills, we plan to make use of home care givers to give a short course on how to use the mobile app.

The user will have access to their health details, progress, blood test results and other information, such as, if one has iron deficiency (for example) what type of foods should they eat to help the medication. The user will have a live interaction with a health practitioner, in real time. The health practitioner should be able to detect if the user needs further assessments, i.e hospital admissions/ physical clinic visits/ a home care giver to come and do a home visit for testing vital signs of a patient and them relaying them to the health practitioner in real time.

These should definitely encourage the patient/ user to take further care of their own health as well as the well being of those around them.

The collection of data should be able to give the practitioner all the information that they would need to be able to adequately assist the patient. As they will have access codes to be able to access this information. In that way, no one keeps physical files, whose disadvantage is being in sight of every eyes.

If there is no critical condition, the health practitioner will prescribe the following dose of ART and schedule the next appointment. The app automatically stores the next appointment to the calendars of both the patient and the Health Practitioner. That way no one will forget their dates.

For expectant mothers, this process should go through to booking a delivery date and method of delivery depending on their continuous interaction with their health and status etc.

Mobile App - Is a modern, innovative and easiest way to make communications.

Data Storage - Give the needed information to all parties involved. Should also be able to do reports such as birth status, fatalities, prevalent causes of fatalities to be able to point out id there are new areas of interest that need to be investigated, per area and progress.

Connectivity - This will ensure that every user is available for their consultations even if they are not well enough to leave home.

Cyber Security - Ensuring that Data collected is safe and secured from and breaches of data and confidentiality.

We are all from Historically Disadvantaged Backgrounds. We are planning to use a big corporation to develop the Application. We also wish to involve other individuals from other backgrounds to help us better understand the needs of all South Africans.

We are guided by the principles of reconciliation and Ubuntu, no one must get left behind, we are children of the same nation. Tat Mandela taught us well about reconciliation. We however acknowledge that the poverty stricken areas need the first line of attention.